News

A recenty study shows hope to help Chemotherapy patients with pain when going through their treatments.

A marijuana extract called 'Cannabidiol' could help prevent painful neuropathy in patients receiving the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel, according to new animal experiments .

"Our preliminary findings...indicate that cannabidiol may prevent the development of paclitaxel-induced allodynia in mice and therefore be effective at preventing dose-limiting paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy in humans," according to the report by Sara Jane Ward, Ph.D., and colleagues of Temple University School of Pharmacy, Philadelphia.

Paclitaxel-commonly used in the treatment of advanced breast or ovarian cancer-can cause nerve damage (neuropathy), leading to symptoms like pain, numbness, or tingling.

Cannabidiol is a marijuana extract that has pain and inflammation-reducing effects, while avoiding the psychoactive side effects of marijuana and other "cannabinoid" compounds.

In the new study, male and female mice were treated with paclitaxel and monitored for evidence of neuropathy.

The results showed that paclitaxel induced abnormal pain responses (allodynia) mainly in female mice-less so in males. Allodynia was more likely to develop at higher doses of paclitaxel.

When female mice were treated with cannabidiol before paclitaxel, it effectively prevented the development of allodynia. Abnormal pain responses to both cold and mechanical pressure were prevented by cannabidiol.

The preventive effect was permanent, with no evidence that nerve damage developed after cannabidiol treatment was stopped, the report said.

Looks like more and more people are turning to the Cannabis industry when times are tough.

MIDDLE-CLASS families are making up to £3,000 a month by turning their spare bedrooms into CANNABIS factories, a shock investigation found.

White-collar workers hand over space in their homes to criminal gangs for up to 12 weeks a time to grow huge crops of harmful "skunk" — which can cause psychosis and other mental health problems.

In return, they receive huge cash sums from dealers desperate to avoid being caught.

The new tactic is believed to have begun after cops started to crack down on large-scale drugs factories by using heat-seeking helicopters to detect unusual surges caused by the lighting systems necessary to grow cannabis quickly.

Now gangs prefer renting just one room and believe there is less chance of "respectable" families in affluent areas being busted, say reporters from BBC 5 Live Investigates.

One female grower in her 40s, from posh Alderley Edge in Cheshire, admitted: "I live in a very nice house with three bedrooms. This is a very middle-class area.

Newswise — San Francisco, CA. (September 23, 2011) – Cannabidiol—a compound derived from marijuana—may be a promising new treatment to prevent the development of painful neuropathy in patients receiving the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel, according to animal experiments reported in the October issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).

"Our preliminary findings…indicate that cannabidiol may prevent the development of paclitaxel-induced allodynia in mice and therefore be effective at preventing dose-limiting paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy in humans," according to the report by Sara Jane Ward, Ph.D., and colleagues of Temple University School of Pharmacy, Philadelphia.

Oakland, CA -- The RAND Corporation issued a report today dispelling the myth that there are inherent links between medial marijuana distribution centers and crime. The study on which the RAND report is based claims that crime was as much as 60 percent greater around medical marijuana dispensaries that had been shut down by the City of Los Angeles compared to those areas with open dispensaries. "[W]e found no evidence that medical marijuana dispensaries in general cause crime to rise," said Mireille Jacobson, the study’s lead author and a senior economist at RAND.

RAND's study, which challenges the common wisdom that medical marijuana dispensaries promote criminal activity, affirms the findings of patient advocates. "We have reached the same conclusions as RAND using a qualitative study of public officials with firsthand experience of how dispensaries reduce crime in their neighborhoods," said Steph Sherer, Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the country's leading medical marijuana advocacy group. "Unfortunately, law enforcement has largely ignored or refuted these findings."

According to a statement from RAND, the study "examined crime reports for the 10 days prior to and the 10 days following June 7, 2010, when the city of Los Angeles ordered more than 70 percent of the city’s 638 medical marijuana dispensaries to close." Researchers analyzed crime reports within a few blocks around dispensaries that closed and compared that to crime reports for neighborhoods where dispensaries remained open. In total, RAND said that "researchers examined 21 days of crime reports for 600 dispensaries in Los Angeles County -- 170 dispensaries remained open while 430 were ordered to close."

LOS ANGELES - A new study released Tuesday showed that when hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries were closed last year in Los Angeles crime rates rose in surrounding neighborhoods, challenging claims made by law enforcement agencies that the storefronts are magnets for crime.

The report by the nonprofit RAND Corp. reviewed crime reports for the 10 days prior to and the 10 days after city officials shuttered the clinics last summer after a new ordinance went into effect. The analysis revealed that crime increased about 60 percent within three blocks of a closed dispensary compared to the same parameters for those that remained open.

"If medical marijuana dispensaries are causing crime, then there should be a drop in crime when they close," said Mireille Jacobson, a RAND senior economist and the study's lead author. "Individual dispensaries may attract crime or create a neighborhood nuisance, but we found no evidence that medical marijuana dispensaries in general cause crime to rise."

Crime was among the concerns that prompted the City Council to pass the ordinance that put strict guidelines on the pot clinics and forced many of them to close. Law enforcement authorities have long argued collectives attract crime because they often handle large amounts of cash and thieves can resell marijuana.

Two workers at different dispensaries were killed during robberies in June 2010.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca went one step further last September when he said nearly all dispensaries operate as criminal enterprises, a claim that infuriated medical marijuana supporters who have said law enforcement officials have resorted to scare tactics to advance their agenda.

"They have perpetuated this myth that there is more crime associated with collectives," said James Shaw of the Union of Medical Marijuana Patients, an advocacy group for medicinal marijuana users. "This council should be emboldened to revise the ordinance so it's not so draconian to the patients and their associations."

Researchers looked at crime reports for 600 dispensaries in Los Angeles County — 170 that remained open and 430 ordered to close. They found that the further away from the clinics the less crime there was: within six blocks of a closed dispensary crime rose by 25 percent and by 10 blocks there was no perceptible change in crime.